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Airbus workers in France, Germany strike against massive job cuts
On Wednesday, the parent company of European Airbus, EADS, announced plans to slash 10,000 jobs at Airbus’ European factories—nearly one-fifth of the company’s current workforce. The announcement, made at a news conference in Paris by Airbus chief Louis Gallois, confirmed press reports published on Tuesday of an unprecedented assault on Airbus jobs.
A total of 4,300 jobs are to be cut in France, 3,700 in Germany, 1,600 in Britain and 400 in Spain. Airbus currently employs 23,000 workers in Germany, 19,000 in France, 10,000 in Great Britain and 3,000 in Spain.
Airbus workers in Germany and France responded immediately to the announcement by walking off the job. Workers at the three affected factories in Germany stopped work and went home, as did workers at France’s Meaulte plant. Some 1,000 workers in Toulouse, where Airbus is headquartered and final assembly of the A380 jet airliner takes place, launched demonstrations against the downsizing.
Reuters news service quoted Joachim Gramberg at the Varel plant as saying of the announcement, “I couldn’t believe the news. I just couldn’t believe it. We used to build 200 planes a year when we were doing great and now we are even making 438 a year and it’s still the end.”
Airbus, which is financed by a consortium of European governments, is one of the biggest European-wide industrial projects It has long been touted as a model of collaboration in asserting European industrial might against American domination of the commercial airline industry. The huge workforce cuts announced Wednesday are the culmination of a growing crisis for Airbus that has fuelled bitter wrangling between the main partners involved in the project—the governments of France and Germany.
More
http://wsws.org/articles/2007/mar2007/airb-m01.shtml
Airbus workers in Germany and France responded immediately to the announcement by walking off the job. Workers at the three affected factories in Germany stopped work and went home, as did workers at France’s Meaulte plant. Some 1,000 workers in Toulouse, where Airbus is headquartered and final assembly of the A380 jet airliner takes place, launched demonstrations against the downsizing.
Reuters news service quoted Joachim Gramberg at the Varel plant as saying of the announcement, “I couldn’t believe the news. I just couldn’t believe it. We used to build 200 planes a year when we were doing great and now we are even making 438 a year and it’s still the end.”
Airbus, which is financed by a consortium of European governments, is one of the biggest European-wide industrial projects It has long been touted as a model of collaboration in asserting European industrial might against American domination of the commercial airline industry. The huge workforce cuts announced Wednesday are the culmination of a growing crisis for Airbus that has fuelled bitter wrangling between the main partners involved in the project—the governments of France and Germany.
More
http://wsws.org/articles/2007/mar2007/airb-m01.shtml
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